Windows 10 perpetually slow on laptop

FWIW. Have a Toshiba i5, 4GB, Normal 5400 rpm HDD.

My first attempt to backup the disk and reinstall Win10 fresh was a disaster. After install I applied all the vendor drivers for Win10. The thing would "think" and "think" with everything begin slow to start. Did a lot of the tweaks etc, no joy. Eventually found the SATA I/O driver as installed was wrong. Fixed that and it was a happy bunny.

I needed apps I though I would never use again which resulted in me having to restore the old Win7 image. All good so far. During a server install, I left the laptop on for the night and it decided it was going to upgrade to Win10. When I got to it, there it was with it's new upgraded Win10. And just for fun, no issues and as fast as ever, even with all the old apps. Bargain.

My conclusion is that WIn10 gets some of the drivers wrong on a default install and even the vendor drivers may not help. So perhaps check the VID/PID identifiers for your disk I/O chipset and see if you can get anything better?
 
mattrudlles said:
And if I upped ram to 8gb? Sorry to be wracking your brain.
Click to expand...
Ram will be a big jump for you(regardless of with or without the ssd)... win10 will be using around 2.5gig of your current 4gig, leaving you 1.5'ish to run your stuff... meh.... multitasking basically impossible. 8gig + ssd and you'll feel like a god
 
justplain said:
Yeah the entry level SSD and a RAM upgrade will make a world of difference.
For General home use it will be more than sufficient and a a lot cheaper than buying a whole new machine.
Let us know the difference once you've installed the upgrades :)
Click to expand...
Will report back once all is up and running! Takealot is taking an age to deliver - 12 November... holding thumbs.
 
Sollie said:
FWIW. Have a Toshiba i5, 4GB, Normal 5400 rpm HDD.

My first attempt to backup the disk and reinstall Win10 fresh was a disaster. After install I applied all the vendor drivers for Win10. The thing would "think" and "think" with everything begin slow to start. Did a lot of the tweaks etc, no joy. Eventually found the SATA I/O driver as installed was wrong. Fixed that and it was a happy bunny.

I needed apps I though I would never use again which resulted in me having to restore the old Win7 image. All good so far. During a server install, I left the laptop on for the night and it decided it was going to upgrade to Win10. When I got to it, there it was with it's new upgraded Win10. And just for fun, no issues and as fast as ever, even with all the old apps. Bargain.

My conclusion is that WIn10 gets some of the drivers wrong on a default install and even the vendor drivers may not help. So perhaps check the VID/PID identifiers for your disk I/O chipset and see if you can get anything better?
Click to expand...
I will definitely check this out!
 
mattrudlles said:
Will report back once all is up and running! Takealot is taking an age to deliver - 12 November... holding thumbs.
Click to expand...
It might be worthwhile checking who has what on Carbonite. I bought my desktop's SDD from a reseller there at ~30% less vs shelf prices.

mattrudlles said:
Should I clone my current HDD or do a fresh install?
Click to expand...
Depends on the PITA factor ;)

Do you have a lot of software that needs reinstalling, do you have the keys and configs ... ? If no, clone. If yes, probably fresh install - a clean start?
 
Temujin said:
Was never a problem in 8 for me... problems in 10 all vanished when I turned it off /shrug
Click to expand...

The problem I have with this sort of so-called "solution" is the assumption that switching off a feature of the OS solves the problem. That is just rubbish. All it does is hide an unidentified issue instead of fixing it.
Then to punt that action as a solution is just compounding and encouraging poor fault diagnosis and ignorance.

The above is my opinion. All are welcome to agree or disagree. I am not open for debate on the matter and nothing anyone will say will change my views either. Especially because there are dozens of us out there with older laptops and computers who do not have these issues at all.
 
Geoff.D said:
The problem I have with this sort of so-called "solution" is the assumption that switching off a feature of the OS solves the problem. That is just rubbish. All it does is hide an unidentified issue instead of fixing it.
Then to punt that action as a solution is just compounding and encouraging poor fault diagnosis and ignorance.

The above is my opinion. All are welcome to agree or disagree. I am not open for debate on the matter and nothing anyone will say will change my views either. Especially because there are dozens of us out there with older laptops and computers who do not have these issues at all.
Click to expand...
Oh I agree 100% with you here... but just plugging in an ssd alone solves so many problems, problems that no doubt still exist, they just now go unnoticed. And as they say, ignorance is bliss:)
 
I checked my laptop this weekend:
  1. Updates all up-to-date.
  2. Processor at idle in windows throttles to <1ghz
  3. Ram usage in my raw converter program jumps to 2.5/4gigs from 1.6/4 (Processor jumps to 2.4ghz and load fluctuates).
  4. HDD usage frequently jumps to 100% when opening applications and using them (I think this is my bottleneck?). The HDD has a consistently highish load when working with the machine.
 
Update:

Installed ram, worked out of the box.

Cloned HDD to SSD - got a black screen with please insert bootable media o_O Managed to get it to boot back into windows on the HDD.

I went into the BIOS but I cannot select the SSD nor even see it listed as an option for boot. Could it be that the SSD needs to physically switch bays with the HDD? (this doesn't make sense to me - was a suggestion on the acronis forum) Will simply formatting the HDD resolve the issue? Do I need to repair the boot with a windows boot image?
 
1 should have verified IF your machine and BIOS will support theSSD first. Then the best is to back up all the stuff you want on another medium, make sure you have a record of ALL the MS codes needed, create a new boot able media for WINB10, install the new drive and start from scratch.
Forget all this cloning crap when dealing with MS 10.
 
Geoff.D said:
1 should have verified IF your machine and BIOS will support theSSD first. Then the best is to back up all the stuff you want on another medium, make sure you have a record of ALL the MS codes needed, create a new boot able media for WINB10, install the new drive and start from scratch.
Forget all this cloning crap when dealing with MS 10.
Click to expand...

I am going to do a clean install this afternoon then.

On that topic, I did reinstall Win 10 at one stage using a bootable USB, but I can't recall if I used a serial code or not! Which MS codes would I need to keep?
 
Cool trick I learnt recently. If you have linux and your laptop is an oem like a HP. You can

sudo cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM

To get your windows key from the firmware.

Windows 10 and SATA dont go well together. Neither does Ubuntu (for me). Currently on Manjaro.

Since my laptop is OEM, it didnt even ask me for a product key last time I tried windows 10 and was fully activated. So it read the key off the firmware.
 
Temujin said:
Ram will be a big jump for you(regardless of with or without the ssd)... win10 will be using around 2.5gig of your current 4gig, leaving you 1.5'ish to run your stuff... meh.... multitasking basically impossible. 8gig + ssd and you'll feel like a god
Click to expand...
I once had 16Gbytes installed, and an SSD, no real improvement.. but hey, I told them I wanted to install Linux, they said NO, so I moved on... to a better paying and far more convenient vocation where I never have to bother with WinBlows again.
 
ArtyLoop said:
I once had 16Gbytes installed, and an SSD, no real improvement.. but hey, I told them I wanted to install Linux, they said NO, so I moved on... to a better paying and far more convenient vocation where I never have to bother with WinBlows again.
Click to expand...
Ag Windows is alright if you throw enough at it. I like running linux too, but I don't want to run wine or alternatives for the software I use. Specifically the camera software I have.
 
mattrudlles said:
Ag Windows is alright if you throw enough at it. I like running linux too, but I don't want to run wine or alternatives for the software I use. Specifically the camera software I have.
Click to expand...
Its called VMWare Player bro.. run your app in a Virtual Machine... using a less-bloated version of Windows... and you'll be happy
 
mattrudlles said:
I am going to do a clean install this afternoon then.

On that topic, I did reinstall Win 10 at one stage using a bootable USB, but I can't recall if I used a serial code or not! Which MS codes would I need to keep?
Click to expand...
Okay, trying to figure out a logical path you can follow. So your laptop can actually see it, just not boot with it.

I'm assuming you had the SSD in another position, as you ask "Could it be that the SSD needs to physically switch bays with the HDD ?".

I'd start by removing the HDD (it has you orginal data on it anyway - keep it safe), swapping the SSD to the HDD spot, then see if you can then see it in BIOS. If yes, you should be good to look higher level. if not, okay, you have a problem.

What make/model laptop is this?

Your Win 10 OS keys have been uploaded to M$, so it is self activating if you reinstall. The other products you need ot worry about are things like Office etc. Use Jellybean or one of those to easily extract those keys. Save them on a memory stick (not the one you're using to boot from - separate) ;)
 
ArtyLoop said:
Its called VMWare Player bro.. run your app in a Virtual Machine... using a less-bloated version of Windows... and you'll be happy
Click to expand...
You know I have wanted to do that in the past, but never had enough ram. Later down the line I will try it out.

Right now I share my machine with my SO and it isn't fair of me to expect her to run a machine like I would. Especially since I would still be grappling along the ropes myself.
 
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Sollie said:
Okay, trying to figure out a logical path you can follow. So your laptop can actually see it, just not boot with it.

I'm assuming you had the SSD in another position, as you ask "Could it be that the SSD needs to physically switch bays with the HDD ?".

I'd start by removing the HDD (it has you orginal data on it anyway - keep it safe), swapping the SSD to the HDD spot, then see if you can then see it in BIOS. If yes, you should be good to look higher level. if not, okay, you have a problem.

What make/model laptop is this?

Your Win 10 OS keys have been uploaded to M$, so it is self activating if you reinstall. The other products you need ot worry about are things like Office etc. Use Jellybean or one of those to easily extract those keys. Save them on a memory stick (not the one you're using to boot from - separate) ;)
Click to expand...
Thanks! I actually did do the switch last night and the SSD picked up. Will look for issues at a higher level now.

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro C50
 
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